Both of these have the same hardware. None of them are clones of anything also. A3 is fully china version of ICOM, there is no original version looking like this crap. NEXT is just looking as genuine NEXT, but with old A1/A2 hardware inside, like A3.

I recommend buying an Icom next. It is priced roughly at 500 euro. Take in consideration that you will probably work on cars that are worth 30-40k euro or maybe more and if your chinese icom fails you even once, you will be spending a lot of money on a bricked ecu.

ICOM A vs ICOM A2 vs ICOM A3

Modified ICOM A2 for vehicles with OBD access receives a significantly more powerful processor and more storage capacity. And robust aluminium case will help to avoid damage when using in harsh environments. It works better in cooling, runs faster and works more stable, not easier broken than older ICOM A.

ICOM A3 can program all units for all BMW series expect media system, and work more stable and has stronger compatibility than ICOM A2, A1.

The first time you install regsvr32, the two * .ocx files will fail to register, but if you uninstall and reinstall the program you just installed from the control panel, the ocx file will be registered normally.

In particular, the message “The program is not installed properly” appears on Windows 7/8. Select the program installed correctly ”

3) Run INSTALL / Instprog.exe under the directory 02_Step2

(Copy and run under C: \ temp, but not on other drives)

Select “ENGLISH” on the screen, press Continue / Continue and never change the folder or drive to install.

Suggestion: you need luck with ISTA+ 4.09.33 as it’s not tested yet by professionals that safety is unknown. And luck also is needed because of the uneasy installation. Hope the installation guide is helpful but note that it would be kind of different from versions, in terms of steps. If you’re not good at this, just buy a cheap HDD or SSD with software inside. A lot of Chinese have crack software with internal disk. Jut buy it with relief.

I assume the reasons being that on DCAN cars one pin is used for a ethernet connection and the other to the K data line – on K line cars, both pins are connected to K data lines and that creating a switch mode circuit would cost more than the interface is worth. The 2 most sensible options are both hardware-related:-

Use an adapter (such as the one sold by One Stop electronics) which internally bridges pins 7 & 8 or…

Mount a small switch on the OBD plug end of your adapter, which can bridge (for K line) or separate (for DCAN) the connection between pins 7 & 8.

How to use/switch/connect to K-Line or Dcan pin 7&8?

Q: So you have to physically connect (K-Line) or disconnect (DCAN) pin 7&8?

A: Yes, I think connection by soldering is a bad option as it limits the usefulness of the interface, I have an adapter but consider a switch to be a better option.

Q: Is there anything else to do for switching from K-Line to DCAN then disconnecting pin 7&8? Unfortunately I don’t have a DCAN model available.

A: As soon as you connect the interface to the car and your computer, run DCAN.exe to configure the comms rate. I have only used my K+DCAN interface with DCAN cars.

Q: Is it necessary to do so every time I want to use DCAN or is the interface staying in DCAN mode once I ran DCAN.exe?

A: You only need to run it when you are switching between modes. If you run it the first time you connect to a DCAN car, your computer will retain the settings.

Q: How do I switch back to K-Line? Just by connecting the two pins or is further action on the computer required?

A: Earlier e39 had both the OBD port in the cabin and the round 20 pin connector under the hood.

The OBD port only allowed access to limited modules, I think only the DME in fact.

I always switch my K+D CAN adapter between K and D CAN protocols as I need to, depending on the car that I’m connecting to.

I use the DOS version of the DCAN utility. As mentioned if you only use the adapter on the e39, run the utility once and set the adapter to K CAN and leave it at that.

In fact thinking about it I use the same adapter for INPA, DIS and ISID.

With these K+DCAN cables there are two subtle different versions, one with pin 8 enabled, one with it disabled. The one with it disabled is ideal for e90 newer than 03/07 & that era, these leads often come with a black adapter to re-enable the pin 8 (by just tying it to pin 9) so it will also be suitable for e46/e39/e63 etc. The ones with pin 8 active are just older versions of the cable. Worst cast scenario you just need to modify the cable & stuck a switch on it to toggle pin 8 on/off as needed.

Finally there are a lot of rubbish adapter cables out there. Finding a good one can be tricky.

Q: I have a 2003 E39 so there is no OBD1 anymore. How do you switch the modes physically? Do you use such a adapter to connect Pin 7&8?

A: If you don‘t plan to use the cable on any cars that have DCAN(2007+) then you can pop open the case and solder a jumper between them. When you do this the DCAN functionality will no longer work though.

Where to download & How to install BMW INPA software for K+Dcan cable:

INSIDE THE (MAN) ONE DELETE ALL THE VALUES INSIDE THEN SAVE AS.MAN SO FSW_PSW.MAN MAKE SURE SAVE AS ALL FILES OTHERWISE IT WOULD SAVE ONLY AS PLAIN TEXT.After You Do That.. Try To Read The Car Again.. So Ncs Expert,f1,f3 E89,cas, Then BackNOTE:All above solutions are shared on BMW forums; never know he/she is the professional or amateur. So, YOU ARE TRYING EACH SOLUTION ON YOUR OWN RISK.Reference: NCS EXPERT User GuideProceed at your own risk, this is just my interpretation for educational/entertainment value only. I am not responsible for you blowing up your car or damaging your modules. Im serious!

DUMMIES GUIDE TO UNDERSTANDING NCS AND CODING

This is roughly how it works... and my dummy interpretation of it. Please read it fully if you want to understand, this isn’t exactly a quick cheat sheet guide.

On Pre '02 cars the coding is slightly different method than Post '02 cars. I am only going to elaborate on coding individual parameters, you can go learn how to code entire modules thru the VO later once you learn the basics below.

The first part to understand is what this stuff about ZCS/VO or "vehicle order" is. When BMW makes a car, they create whats called a "vehicle order", this is basically a bunch of numbers written into the car that tell what modules are installed in the car, regional info etc. This is like your car's DNA! for example if the car has a sunroof, or a convertible or radio etc etc and that it was meant for US,Canada,France etc. Because each car is different with a different set of options/modules or country that its located, the "vehicle order" aka. "ZCS" or "VO" may be different. Why is it called ZCS you ask? because its abbreviated german, and its confusing as hell.

The VO is written into a couple modules of the car, usually ones that start with an "A", like AKMB or ALSZ. On some cars its written elsewhere. In my 02 M3, the VO was written in ALSZ and AKMB. On my '00 328ci it was stored in EWS, KMB. Its nothing more than a string of text/numbers stored in the flash memory of these modules, nothing special. Why is it written into two places? because if one module is failed and has to be replaced, then the other will serve as a backup so you can code the new replacement module to your car. For example ALSZ is the "light switch module" in your car, for some reason it fails. When you buy a new LSZ/LCM, you can retrieve all your settings of VO from AKMB and then code your new LCM to YOUR factory settings. The chances of both modules failing is slim, but if it does... you'll have to contact BMW so they can give you the VO for your car from their records.

OK the one difference is pre-02 cars don’t have a VO. Those cars have their ZCS (which acts like a VO) stored in the EWS or KMB modules. The stuff below is basically identical however for individual parameter coding.

Now go get into the basics of coding.

1. When you load NCS expert, you need to load a profile. These profiles just change how ncs expert behaves when you read your car. The two profiles i stick to are "expertmode" and "revtor's expert profile". if you don’t have it, you can find it on the net easily. In order to code your car the first time, you should pick "revtors". This has something called "manipulation" enabled... ill elaborate on that later.

2. Once the profile is loaded, you basically need to select Vin/ZCS/FA in order for ncs to download VIN info off your car. Once it does this, it will ask you to select a module. Why? because it needs to know your "vehicle order" information. In most cases it will probably be in an "A" module. if it doesn’t load, or cant be accessed, no harm done, just try a different module. When it is able to read it, you will see a long string next to "FA" starting with your chassis "E46_" followed by numbers and text along with #'s and $'s. This is your VO. Now that NCS Expert knows it, it can code your car properly!

CODING HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE MODULE YOU JUST SELECTED TO READ THE VO FROM! This perplexed me for the longest time, I didn’t understand why i selected two modules each time, or what the difference selecting AKMB or ALSZ or etc the first time was. Well... It has no bearing!! all NCS is doing is reading the text/number string that is your VO off the memory in these modules in this first step. You will actually select the desired module to code in later steps.

** PRE-02 cars, you wont see the long FA "VO" string, instead there will be a few lines FG, GM, VN, SA followed by numbers, its basically the same thing different format. For all intents and purposes this is referred to by me as the vehicle order or ZCS for a pre-02 car.

ON POST-02 cars select any module with "A' in front of it, on PRE-02 the "A" modules wont work, you will need to use EWS or KMB for this step... It doesn’t matter which.

Now this guide will touch on the basics to code INDIVIDUAL items on your car. The steps to add items to your VO and code your modules is different and i wont comment on that here, because it will confuse the amateur. Just understand the basics of individual coding first, then coding from your VO will all make sense later.

3. The next part is to download your factory settings in your car to your PC. Once you get the VO loaded, you hit the BACK button. The default job in NCS is to write SO BE VERY CAREFUL here. You will see all your modules listed, for example "EWS,ABG,ASC,KMB,APL,.....etc" and underneath "SG_CODIEREN"

NCS at this point is set to SG_CODIEREN, which means to WRITE to ALL modules listed. You don’t want to do that.

4. So now select "Process ECU", and select the INDIVIDUAL MODULE you want to code. For example LSZ (light switch module). Once you do this, it will say only LSZ (and not all the modules in your car).

5. Now you want to change the job from WRITE to READ. Select "CHANGE JOB", then select "CODIERDATEN_LESEN". This is to READ DATA.

6. Once selected it will confirm this by indicating the module and job type on the screen. Now you are ready. Hit "EXECUTE JOB".

It will say Coding Activ, then Coding Ended.

7. At this point, in your NCSexpert/WORK/ folder there will be a file called "FSW_PSW.TRC"

This is what we want, the coding of your LSZ module that we read earlier. IMMEDIATELY save a backup of this file, rename it to FSW_PSW_LSZ_ORIGINAL.TRC and save it somewhere in case you decide you want to revert to the original copy. Now I want you to resave another copy of this FSW_PSW.TRC file as FSW_PSW.MAN (manipulation...hint hint). Make sure it doesn’t save as FSW_PSW.MAN.TXT or some crap like that, it wont work properly.

OK why all this juggling?? because NCS expert only reads modules and saves EVERYTHING as a FSW_PSW.TRC file. Regardless of what module you read in your car, this is what the filename will be. And everytime you load NCS expert, this file is constantly erased, written and re-written. So thats why we are saving it as FSW_PSW.MAN so we can alter it safely without our copy being overwritten.

This is where you can code. now its all in german, so you will need to run these words in a translator (google) to understand it, OR you can use NCS Dummy that translates this stuff for you and gives you all available parameters, but thats a whole different program and you ought to learn how to use it.

This is what the above looks like if translated. Now you can see how we can deactivate/activate certain things. I’m going to deactivate DRLs here. Translated...

By changing to nicht_activ, it deactivates this setting. Now don’t go crazy, some codes are redundant so changing just one thing wont do the trick. This takes some time and effort to find the right code/codes to work with.

9. Once you are happy, SAVE your FSW_PSW.MAN file.

10. Open up NCS expert, load up "revtors" profile (with manipulation enabled), and reload it to the part where the VO is loaded and its asking you to process ecu (Basically steps 1-3) Look above how to do this. Once you're there, select "PROCESS ECU", select the correct module you are coding, in this case "LSZ". Then select "CHANGE JOB" and make sure you pick "SG_CODIEREN". Once this is done, you are ready to code the car.

NCS will basically now take the FSW_PSW.MAN file, and overwrite the codes in your car's LSZ module with your new settings. It only uses the MAN file because you are using a profile with "manipulation" enabled. The other mode "expertmode" does not have manipulation, and you cannot code individual stuff like this using that profile.

11. Hit "EXECUTE JOB". Wait till it says "Coding ended". Now your new LSZ is coded. Turn off the car, and restart, and check to see if your results are as expected!

12. Open up the /WORK/ folder, open the FSW_PSW.MAN file, select all, delete, save and exit.

Viola! Thats it. You are now an expert on coding individual features!

Now what do you do if you screwed it up or something is behaving funny and you want to go back to original settings. Or you cant remember all the stuff you changed, or don’t like the results.

"xx" is usually the specific Coding index used in your default module, its a number. think of this like "firmware version".

These files are basically from your /DATEN/ folder and contain the proper coding information specific to your car. How does NCS know which files to use? Because it knows by looking at your VIN and VO, then selects the correct files. NCS will then basically read these files, then read your VO and re-write the proper codes, features, activate, deactivate everything to your factory settings.

The job is SG_Codieren or FA_Write because you will WRITE your original settings back in.